++++++ Sorry about the length between updates, I kinda lost the muse and was struggling a bit to get her back.

But fear not my loyal followers, thyn muse has been found.

I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I do not own ++++++

Forty

After my little confrontational argument with Barry and the fact we'd soiled Oliver's sheets, Leonard and I decided to hightail it back to Central City. When Leonard told me that he had a 'job' lined up and that he had somewhere else to be, I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I didn't want to know anymore-plausible deniability.

I sent a message apologising to Suki for leaving her but she pretty much understood why. I could have gone home, instead I chose to go to STAR Labs where Wells was there by himself working on some sciency crap. I'm pretty sure I almost scared the life out of him. "Morning Doctor Wells."

He jumped a little in his chair. "Miss Allen? It's Sunday-neither you nor Barry were due back until tomorrow. What brings you here?"

"Barry and I got into a fight at Oliver and Felicity's engagement party," I confessed, sitting down in a chair beside him. "So I did the totally grownup thing and fled like a girl."

Wells put down the tablet he was working off and raised an eyebrow. "Miss Allen…are you aware of the fact that you are a girl?"

"Well yes, I have boobs," I deadpanned. "But seriously…I'm sure you don't need to listen to me and my relationship dramas but I thought I'd come here because it's quite and I needed some time to think whilst Leonard plays criminal mastermind and Barry tries to think of where I am."

Wells chuckled a little. "I know how you feel about me testing you but I think you should reconsider. At the condition you're in-well neither you or Barry are any match for the Reverse Flash."

"Training," I nodded. "I need training." I knew it, I knew that I needed training…sure, what Oliver and River had given me was more than enough when it came down to hand-to-hand combat but the meta-human side of things…we'll they'd really had no idea and despite them meaning well…I wasn't strong enough. "I thought I was strong enough but the Reverse Flash nearly killed me…he killed my friends. It's time to step it up to the next limit."

"The goal will be to push your limits," Wells explained to me. "See how far you can go and then push you even further."

"So what?" I asked. "Extreme heat?"

He shook his head. "No. Extreme cold. I don't mean to sound out of turn, Miss Allen, but I'd rather start with the cold and see how far you really get. After that we can experiment with extreme heat."

"So…should I call my boyfriend?" I asked with a laugh.

Wells shook his head again. "No. We have a room here that was designed to simulate artic weather conditions. We'll use that first. Are you sure you're up for this?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

Wells picked up his cell phone up off the glass bench top and pushed the call button. "I'm calling Caitlin and Cisco. I'll need their help to get you ready."

"Now?" I asked.

"It's up to you," he replied. "But it would be pertinent if we started now. In the locker rooms there is a container labelled 'artic weather suits', get one of those and bring it back to me. The suit has a built in function designed to monitor the wearers impulses, heart rate, among other things. It is also designed to keep warmth in. Put it on whilst you're at it."

I shrugged and got up. "BRB." I headed back to the locker room, immediately I started taking my clothes off and folding them up, putting them in my locker. I looked around for the box that Wells had told me to look for, finding it and putting the suit on. I turned around and noticed Scarlet was sitting in the locker room chewing on an apple watching me.

"You've no shame," she frowned.

I shrugged. "Nope. None what so ever. Comes with the territory I suppose."

Scarlet shrugged. "So what's Doctor Frankenstein doing with you?" she asked. "A little Eye of the Tiger training montage?"

"Not exactly." I zipped the suit up. "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding from Starla," she replied. "Apparently she's pissed because I decided to come here and try to develop my powers. She wants nothing to do with being a meta human. Me? I'm really, really interested."

I grinned. "The life of a hero ain't glitz and glamour kid. It's lying, full of dishonesty and a lot of sacrifice."

Scarlet shrugged. "I'll be the judge of that. It's my life, no one can tell me what I can and can't do. Not even Starla." She tossed her apple in the trash and got up. "See you 'round. I got some physics homework to do."

I waited for her to leave before I made my way back up to Wells. When I got there, he was talking with Cisco and Caitlin.

"I think I like your other suit," Cisco pointed out.

I laughed. "I'm sure you do. So what's the plan?"

"Follow us," Wells smiled.

I followed the three stooges along the corridor and to the lifts where we travelled down several floor before stepping out into a floor I hadn't been on before.

"Before the particle accelerator exploded," Wells started to say, "we had several contracts with the government over testing certain suits for different environments. The AWS that you're wearing was one of them."

"Oh I've just had an idea," Cisco piped up. "What if we incorporate this technology with the technology in Charlie's suit against Captain Cold?"

"Oh," Caitlin frowned. "That's a very good idea. Charlie, do you mind?"

"Do I mind?" I quoted. "Well you two are so far ahead of this I don't even get a vote do I?"

"Well he is kind of a bad guy," Caitlin shrugged. "He's not a meta human but he has the gun, he's still a bad guy no matter how you put it."

The four of us stopped at the door to a room labelled Artic Simulation and Wells opened the door.

I stuck my head in the door and looked around…it was like an empty room. I was expecting artic…with a chance of penguins? "What is this?" I frowned.

Cisco grinned. He held up a tablet and typed something in the screen. Suddenly the room was filled with little dots, little glowing white dots. An image flickered and started to take the form of an artic tundra.

"Wow," I whispered. "That's a hologram."

"It's really cool, hey?" he chuckled.

"Can you program this to be like the holo-deck in Star Trek?" I asked.

Cisco gasped. "Where have you been my whole life?" he asked me.

I laughed and stepped inside. "So what now?"

"I'm going to initiate the program to work at zero degrees," Wells explained. "Every hour I'll change the temperature ten degrees at a time. I'll be monitoring you the whole time."

"So what do we tell Barry if he calls?" Cisco asked.

I shrugged. "Tell him I'm chilling?"

Even Wells chuckled at that one.

"Take this," Caitlin offered, holding an ear thingy in her hand. "It's an earwig so you can talk to us."

I grabbed it and took a hold of Caitlin's hand at the same time. "I don't care what you guys think but I'm in love with Snart. Kind of refrain from talking like that around me. I'm not particularly in the mood for it. Thanks." I stepped back and sighed. "So what?"

"Be as active as you can," Wells instructed. "Until you can't be."

I saluted him as Cisco closed the door.

"Alright Charlie, let's see what you can do."

Fucking hell it was cold. And I'm not talking about cool winter afternoon cold but artic freezing cold. I'm pretty sure the snot in my nose is even frozen at this point in time.

Right now, I'm not exactly moving…more like curled up in the foetal position shivering my ass off and wondering how good a hot bath would be right now…hot soup…chili's…ah man I could kill someone for some really spicy chili fries right about now.

Give up my life of vigilante justice and live my life as a queen of crime…man I'd be an awesome villain…only the name has to fit the profile…Lady Death? Nah…Deep Spring…nah…

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Wells spoke over the ear wig, "but I think you need to get up here now. I'm sending Caitlin down with some heat blankets."

"W-wh-what's t-the p-p-probl-problem?" I stuttered, shivering in the cold.

"You've been holding out on me," Joe suddenly took over. "Snart's in town and he has a partner, I've two cops in the burns unit. Get up here, now!"

Well crap.

I looked up just as the door to the unit opened up, Caitlin and Cisco were standing there in snow jackets. I struggled to my feet and stumbled over to them, almost crashing into Caitlin and knocking her over. "F-f-fuck it's cold," I shivered.

Caitlin wrapped a silver blanket around me and started to rub my arms. "You're freezing, Charlie."

"Well duh," Cisco frowned.

Still shivering, I followed Caitlin and Cisco up to the control room where both Barry and Joe were with Wells.

Joe looked pretty pissed at me but stopped when he saw me. "Jesus Christ. Your lips are blue."

"C-cold," I shivered. "B-but that's n-not the point. Wha-what's Leonard up-up to this t-time?"

There was a little voice in the back of my head asking me how I could love someone when they could be so bad?